American Progress
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| American Progress | |
|---|---|
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| Artist | John Gast |
| Year | Script error: No such module "Date time". |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Subject | Manifest destiny, Settler colonialism |
| Dimensions | 11 1/2 in × 15 3/4 in. (29.2 cm × 40 cm) |
| Location | Autry Museum of the American West, Los Angeles, California |
| Owner | Autry Museum of the American West |
| Accession | 92.126.1 |
| Website | Exhibit website |
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American Progress is an 1872 painting by John Gast, a Prussian-born painter, printer, and lithographer who lived and worked during the 1870s in Brooklyn, New York. American Progress, an allegory of manifest destiny, was widely disseminated in chromolithographic prints. It is now held by the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles, California.[1][2]
Description
The original painting has a size of 11.50 by 15.75 inches (29.2 cm × 40.0 cm). It was commissioned in 1872 by George Crofutt, a publisher of American Western travel guides.
The painting depicts a landscape of North America in the 19th century. The right side of the picture portrays locations on the east coast, which are already settled by Europeans. There, New York City can be seen, along with various ships around the coast of Manhattan. Also illustrated is the Brooklyn Bridge, which started construction just 2 years earlier and would not be completed until 1883 – 11 years later.
In the midpoint of the painting is Columbia, a female personification of the United States. On her head is what Crofutt calls "The Star of the Empire".[3] She lays a telegraph wire with one hand and carries a school book in the other. Columbia represents the movement of "civilization" from the already well-settled East to the much more sparsely populated by Europeans West, leading settlers either on foot or by stagecoach, horseback, Conestoga wagon, wagon train, or riding steam trains.
To the left of the painting is depicted the western part of North America. The landscape is drawn to be much darker than the places already settled by Europeans with large dark clouds hanging over the distant mountains.[1]Template:R/superscript A herd of American bison and group of indigenous people can be seen to be running into the dark, away from the approaching people.
In the foreground, Gast depicts a group of settlers, heading West, where a bear appears to growl at them, while behind them stands an already established farm with a person tilling the fields and another herding livestock, representing the Midwest.
Significance
Much of the west was still occupied by Native Americans in 1872; Gast portrays the idea that America was destined to expand to this area as part of Manifest Destiny.[4] The US Department of Homeland Security used the image with the heading "A Heritage to be proud of, a Homeland worth Defending" in a post on social media in August 2025.[1]Template:R/superscript
The piece has been critiqued by Indigenous artists Klee Benally and Charles Hilliard in their respective works "The Dark Mark of Manifest Destiny"[5] and "Reversing Manifest Destiny".[6]
References
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- ^ a b c Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Roberts, Sam (August 28, 2025). "Homeland Security's Embrace of Art Reopens an Old Debate". The New York Times.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Autry's Collections Online – painting American Progress". The Autry Museum of the American West’s Collections Online. Archived from the original on August 11, 2024.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Ceasar L. McDowell, Ceasar L.; Hidalgo, Nitza M. (1990). Facing Racism in Education. p. 182. ISBN 978-0916690236.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Aikin, Roger Cushing (Autumn 2000). "Paintings of Manifest Destiny: Mapping the Nation". The University of Chicago Press. 14 (3): 79–89. JSTOR 3109364. Retrieved December 5, 2023.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Klee Benally, The Dark Mark of Manifest Destiny (After John Gast, American Progress,1872), GIF. Retrieved October 9, 2025 – via www.facebook.com.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Reversing Manifest Destiny". Britannica Kids. Retrieved October 9, 2025.
External links
- Essay on Spirit of the frontier by historian Martha A. Sandweiss of Amherst College Includes high resolution version of the painting.
- The Library of Congress:
- Entry in Goulding's New York City directory (1877), listing him as GAST JOHN, artist & lithographer, 39 Park pl. h B'klyn
- Short biography, list of references, and examples of work on askart.com
- Beyond "American Progress": The Legacy of John Gast by Samantha Rothenberg
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